NAFTA Dance: Canadians On The Mole Hunt!

posted at 8:24 pm on March 5, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged not to rest until his government finds the leaker who exposed Barack Obama’s NAFTA Dance. The Conservative PM calls the leak “unfair to Senator Obama” and denounces the leak of the conversation and the memo:

Hey, now. When Adscam bounced the Liberals out of power in Ottawa, we American conservatives thought that Harper would help his cousins south of the border. How dare Harper get non-partisan now!Of course, Harper has no choice. While Barack Obama’s campaign adviser Austan Goolsbee should not have tried to play both sides of the NAFTA debate, the Canadian consulate had no business leaking the conversation to the press. It puts Canada in the position of attempting to game the American election. In fact, it wasn’t just an attempt: someone succeeded in deflecting Obama’s course in the primaries.

Harper needs to send a clear message to his diplomatic corps to act professionally. Canada may rely on NAFTA, but they need their integrity intact in all of their international dealings. If Obama manages to win this election, they will have to offer him the same friendship and alliance they offer any other American administration — and sneaking diplomatic conversations to the press isn’t a great way of building confidence and trust.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

It sounds as if you place the blame for this situation on Canada. I say bovine excrement! It was BHO’s fault and nobody else’s. In fact I would say thank you to the leaker for exposing the naivety of a Presidential candidate that isn’t ready for prime time. In fact, I believe what BHO did is illegal.

I’m not blaming Canada for the Obama campaign’s lying about NAFTA. However, Harper can’t have his consulates leaking conversations to the press, especially those with candidates who want to discuss issues with them. If that becomes a habit, they will lose a great deal of their ability to anticipate policy shifts — and influence with the people who run for office.

In this particular case, it seems appropriate for BHO’s communication with the Canadians to be leaked like any other political story. He’s a candidate with no current diplomatic authority to speak with Canada.

The only way we’ll avoid electing slimy, lying politicians is if ethical people will speak up and present the evidence needed to expose them. This isn’t a treasonous (sp?) NYT-leak piece.

He told the Canadians, something like “Don’t worry, I won’t alter NAFTA. Cary on, as usual”, and the American unions “I will get rid of NAFTA, just for you, Bill Clinton, that leech did you in, bla, bla, bla…”

…and was caught with his pants down…

How anyone in today’s high political stakes believes that anything will be kept a secret is surreal, and naive.

The Canadians, and all others should stay out of our elections. They should decline any influence, or perceived influence to the contrary. That’s what would give them the most credibility, and what is expected of them, and of us, if they have an election.

LCL4, true ’nuff, although it’s not clear whether Goolsbee just acted on his own accord or got sent by Obama. I don’t think we’ll ever really know that. Obama’s reluctance to toss him overboard makes it look more like the latter.

Entelechy, I think that’s what Harper is saying in that clip. He wants his consulates to stay out of American politics.

I’m not blaming Canada for the Obama campaign’s lying about NAFTA. However, Harper can’t have his consulates leaking conversations to the press, especially those with candidates who want to discuss issues with them. If that becomes a habit, they will lose a great deal of their ability to anticipate policy shifts — and influence with the people who run for office.

Ed Morrissey on March 5, 2008 at 8:45 PM

Unless he wanted it leaked, which he probably did. It is not in Canada’s national interest to have NAFTA messed with. This is probably a case of nipping a problem in the bud.

Yes, Foreign Governments AND Citizens are supposed to stay out of each others elections. How much would our elections be affected if the sources of all donations to campaigns, non-profit organizations affliated with Candidates, and the 527 organizations were widely distributed?

Does simpy releasing pertinent information = interference? The answer seems to depend on who’s hurt, and how they’re percieved by the person complainin.

I agree with Mr Morrissey. The Canadian gov’t can’t have it diplomatic core leaking conversations. It harms relations between our govenrments. Even though this exposed Obama out to be a paper tiger on nafta it hurts our future relations with our largest trading partner.

The Canadian gov’t can’t have it diplomatic core leaking conversations.

The whole point of leaking is plausible deniability meaning that unless you can prove that the highest levels of Canadian government leaked this conversation on purpose then legally they have not interfered in any way.

The quasi-smirk on Harper’s face does not amount to evidence that Canada is subverting the US electoral system.

I see your point, but let’s not forget that just because we have a campaign going on that Canada doesn’t have an interest in a topic such as NAFTA. Citizen’s of Canada have a vested interest in that trade deal. Any discussions of renegotiating involve all parties the opportunity to remegotiate..Not just the U.S.

The issue isn’t about Canada trying to involve themselves in our election. As was stated:

How can Canada be required to stay out of our elections on one hand, but we have a presidential candidate’s campaign talking to them about his stances on the other? Either they’re in, or they’re out.

amerpundit on March 5, 2008 at 9:03 PM

As I read on another blog..If Obama managed to tick off a friendly nation like Canada, can you imagine what he would do with a nation like China?

I like Stephen Harper better than any of our current candidates for US President.

As far as the Obama issue goes, the ability to keep some communication secret actually leads to better models according to economic models of government. This should not be confused with keeping secret the outcome and voting on much legislation which should be made public. For instance, the legislator responsible for any penny of spending should be known.

I think Canada is just playing the smart hand. Condemning the leak is common sense, and they have no real place to off judgment on Obama (not yet at least).

Not the case with us though. Obama was caught being a politician in name and in deed. GASP! I hope we continue to hammer him until the convention for this…hopefully after that we won’t have to worry about him.

Ha, I believe the Obama campaign when they says Goolsbee met with Canadians on a personal, university related appraisal of the American political situation. So what’s the big deal here? /s

On a more serious note, transparency is a good thing for the public to have, no? It is for our politics (and whether it in all cases or not our system leaks like a sieve). It has for the media, they are now known for their dishonesty which is the first step in their reform.

So, why isn’t it for our normal day-to-day foreign relations, which is all that this event was? If Obama doesn’t want to embarrass the Canadian government, then maybe he shouldn’t let his advisers inform them that he is lying to the American people, which additionally burdens the Canucks with preventing it from being leaked to their own media.

I can understand Harper’s action, but the blame — the embarrassment, the damage to the campaign, the foreign influence on US politics — should be placed right where it belongs: On Barack Obama.

Ed, you say the Canadian government should act professionally. I say if Obama had acted in a statesmanlike manner, none of this would have happened.

Ed, you say the Canadian government should act professionally. I say if Obama had acted in a statesmanlike manner, none of this would have happened.

Dusty on March 5, 2008 at 9:39 PM

Good point. Obama, imo, overplayed his hand. He is buying into his hype. Election or not, he, nor any of his minions, have the right to be trying to make or influence policy with our allies or enemies..

This isn’t Harper’s fault so he has no need to apologize but I’m glad that some members of the Canadian Diplomatic Corp managed to leak this memo. Unprofessional? Yes. Needed to be done? Indeed. You may blame Canada today but you will thank us tomorrow.

It doesn’t go far enough. The Canadian and Mexican government need to make it clear that they will stop oil & gas exports if the US government tries to renegotiate NAFTA. You can go protectionist, but you’ll walk to work to do it!

BTW Canada represents 94% of US gas imports (i.e. heating, cooking, and power plants) while each company is about 20% of oil imports. Chavez is a clown and can’t do much, but losing 40% of your imports would be hard to match (especially given how much comes in via pipeline). You simply can’t replace gas pipeline imports.

Personally I think it was in Canada’s best interests to leak this information- Obama’s campaign was telling the American voter one thing and their government another. Someone was being lied to about an important policy issue. It could have been Canada who was being fooled- among all the denials from the Obama camp we still haven’t seen a clear and unambiguous statement about what he will do about NAFTA if he’s elected as far as I can see.

You’d think that someone in the press would be pushing to get Obama on the record about his real stance on this issue. “Mr. Obama, were you lying to voters or to Canada?” There, pretty simple question, really. Maybe someone in Canada wanted to know who he was lying to and assumed a leak of this nature would clear the matter up?

And I’ve got to agree with the commenters above- Obama brought this on himself. And I think, Ed, you’d be a bit more concerned about his efforts at diplomacy if Canada wasn’t such a friendly nation- and you’d want to know if his people were in contact with any other foreign powers when he has no place in engaging in such talks at this stage. Doesn’t the authority to engage foreign nations like this lie with the President?

I agree with PROfITSBEARD, Obama is not a diplomat. The Canadians owe him no diplomatic courtesies nor does he deserve them. If he does win the election, then they can extend him diplomatic status. Canada did the right thing by reporting Obama’s duplicity.

Missing from all the above comment – unless I missed something – is that Mr. Harper wants the law to be respected and enforced. I agree the leak serves the public interest of both countries, if not the deceitful farce that is the Obama campaign, but it is also in the Canadian interest for confidential documents to be treated in confidence.

Hilarious.
For those of you who don’t know much about Harper, the level of contempt for this entire steaming pile of garbage is plainly evident. The smirk was great.
And this might be my naive Canadian perspective, but I didn’t think Senators were authorized to negotiate trade agreements.

Hilarious.
For those of you who don’t know much about Harper, the level of contempt for this entire steaming pile of garbage is plainly evident. The smirk was great.
And this might be my naive Canadian perspective, but I didn’t think Senators were authorized to negotiate trade agreements.